Buckskin Border: A Western Quintet

Though he died young, Savage (1922–1958) was a prolific author of western novels and short stories, many published in the popular western pulps of the 1940s. In this collection of five short novels, each story follows a succinct pulp formula: accurate historical detail, concise and clever plots, subtle suspense, strong male and female characters, powerful macho conflict, chaste romance, and plenty of graphic, bloody gunplay and knife fights. In “Murder Stalks the Fur Trails,” a cheating Wyoming fur trader tries to stop a party of free trappers from going independent, with a double-cross, ambush, and a vicious keelboat fight adding solid excitement. The one non-fur-trade story, “Crow-Bait Caravan,” has a small wagon freight outfit under attack from deadly rivals and a traitor within. The best is “The Buckskin Army Heads South,” set in 1843 New Mexico, with “the ugliest man in all the Rockies” trying to solve the murder of his partner and find a missing fortune in beaver pelts, while fighting cutthroat poachers, enraged Indians, and a greedy, coldblooded killer. Several stories reflect touchy subjects, which got Savage in trouble with publishers—including mixed-race relationships, which were common enough in the Old West, but taboo in the 1940s and ’50s. This collection showcases Savage’s gift for telling bold, dramatic, and exciting western tales. (Mar.)